Book Reviews + Activities

Patty, the 12-year-old protagonist of the story, is highly intelligent, curious, and loves words, but doesn’t do well in school. She does not live up to the way her parents think girls should look or act, so she is constantly criticized by her mother and regularly physically punished by her father. The only people who show her compassion are the family’s African American housekeeper and an escaped German POW.

Set in a small town in Arkansas during WWII, this book realistically portrays the racism and anti-Semitism of the era.

This would be a good book for students to discuss in small groups or children to discuss with their parents. Many questions could come up in these discussions, for instance:

Why are Patty’s parents so nasty to her? How did the parents come to be the way they are? Is it because they were subject to so much anti-Semitism over the years that they want Patty to fit into a Christian mold about how girls should act? Have your parents and other adults criticized you because you don’t act the way society says you should act? Boys not macho enough; girls not feminine enough?

What do you think about the relationship between Patty and the German POW?

What do you think about Patty’s friendship with the family housekeeper?

How did you feel about what happens to Patty at the end of the story? Does this scenario make sense because of what’s going on during wartime?

What advice would you give Patty if you lived during the WWII era?

Your students/children might enjoy this crossword puzzle based on the story.

This book tells the story of an Ojibwa Native American family living on an island in Lake Superior in the mid-1800's. It's full of details about daily life during one year, such as, preparing animal skins, doing beadwork, planting crops, preparing food, hunting, etc. So much detail could be boring, but interwoven with details are the lives of the people, mostly from the point of view of seven-year-old Omakayas. Children will identify with her because, like most children, she is stuck doing something she really dislikes, but her family wants her to do it. In her case the task is scraping animal skins, which she finds unpleasant. Gradually, with the help of her devoted grandmother, she learns what her true talents are. Omakayas also has to live with an extremely annoying little brother and an older sister who is perfect in every way.

This is not a plot-driven story. We simply follow a family and their neighbors through a year-long cycle including traditions like the maple sugar festival. We also follow their journey through horrible sickness, near starvation, and a harsh winter. This story is full of three-dimensional characters, including my favorite, Old Tallow, a tall rangy woman who has chased away three husbands, lives by herself in the woods, has a pack of snarling dogs, carries a gun, and smokes a pipe.

Crossword: The Birchbark House

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

HarperCollins; Reprint edition (January 8, 2010); grades 4 - 7Imagine flying across country from New York to California to spend your summer vacation with a mother you barely know, and who doesn't want you or your two sisters. That's the situation for 11-year-old Delphine, whose father puts her in charge of 9-year-old Vonetta and 7-year-old Fern.

No hugs, no kisses at the airport. The woman who abandoned Delphine when she was 4, says, "Ya'll have to move if you're going to be with me." Delphine quickly learns that she's on her own. Mother doesn't cook, so supper is take-out Chinese from mean Lady Ming's shop down the street. Breakfast is at the People's Center where food is handed out to the poor. "It don't make me no difference," says Mother about what the girls do during the day.​Delphine and her sisters have landed in the middle of the Black Panther Movement of the 1960's, in which their mysterious mother is heavily involved. Children (and adults) will enjoy reading about how Delphine negotiates with humor and wisdom her summer of emerging (and scary) black power.

There are two sequels to this book: P.S. Be Eleven, and Gone Crazy in Alabama.​

Word Search: One Crazy Summer

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Henry Holt & Co., 2009; grades 5 - 8.

​This charming book tells the story of eleven-year-old Calpurnia (nicknamed Callie) and her large, well-off family, who live in Texas in 1899. It's hard enough growing up with six brothers, but Callie is caught in a dilemma. She wants to get down and dirty and explore the natural world with her granddad, but her mother wants her to learn to be a proper young lady who is content to cook, do needlework, and get married.

There are many reasons pre-teens will like this book, including the spunky main character, the exploration of the natural world, the portrayal of life at the turn of the 20th century (the first automobile!), the adventures of Callie's brothers, and the grumpy old granddad who is a big fan of Charles Darwin. And there are sequels! The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate is the second book and, I believe, a third book is in the works.

Crossword: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2016; grades 7 to adult.

​If your students are studying the Revolutionary War, the Seeds of America trilogy by Laurie Halse Anderson presents the story from the perspective of slaves who found themselves in the middle of the great struggle, not knowing if the Patriots or the British or neither would set them free. [Grades 6 - 10, but adults will like it, too)The first book, Chains, is told from the point of view of Isabel, a 13-year-old slave. She and her younger sister, Ruth, are promised freedom when their elderly mistress dies, but a cruel, greedy relative of the deceased sells them back into slavery.

Isabel and Ruth wind up in New York City, which is occupied by the Continental Army during the start of the Revolution. Here, they learn what it's like to be owned by the cruel Locton family, who sympathize with the British. Isabel also meets Curzon, a slave boy several years older, who is owned by Col. Bellingham, a Patriot.

The words "All men created equal" rings hollow to Isabel as she endures betrayal, unspeakable cruelty, and loss.

The second book, Forge, is told from the point of view of Curzon.

After escaping from New York, Isabel and Curzon go their separate ways.

Still believing that the Patriots will support his quest for freedom, Curzon enlists in the Patriot army, which camps for the winter at Valley Forge (1777 - 78).

Anderson does a masterful job of describing life in the camp, where 12,000 men endured bitter cold, no barracks, and little food or clothing.

Curzon's past catches up to him when Col. Bellingham, his former master (and Patriot), joins the camp and claims that Curzon is still his slave. It turns out that Bellingham has also enslaved Isabel, who wears a neck scarf that hides a nasty secret.

Will Curzon and Isabel escape again and achieve freedom?

The third book in the series is Ashesand is told from the point of view of Isabel.

From page 2:After walking more than a thousand miles, after months spent laboring, first in Lancaster, then Baltimore, then Richmond, and at whatever mountain farm would have us . . . . After months lost in worry, waiting to see if Curzon would recover from the wounds inflicted by a falling hemlock, then another half a year wasted as I fought an intermittent fever that gripped my lungs so tight I could barely walk . . . After dodging two armies, wild packs of banditti, and armed Loyalists deep in liquor . . . . After sleepless nights haunted by ghosts and endless days of empty bellies . . . . After all that, I was close to finding my baby sister, Ruth.

Isabel does find Ruth, who had been shipped off to Charleston when the cruel Loctons of New York owned the girls.

Eventually, Curzon, Isabel, and Ruth find themselves involved in the Battle of Yorktown, 1781. Curzon still believes that the Patriots will set him and all slaves free, but Isabel is skeptical.

Isabel and Ruth find out what women's work is like in support of the soldiers.

From page 220:They [the soldiers] had been digging the trench all through the night. As the sun climbed into the sky, they returned to camp, tired and filthy, but in high spirits. I heated more water for washing. In those days of digging no man was ever clean in the proper sense of the word. The best I could do was to keep lice and other varmints from infesting their clothes, and insist that they dried their feet after working, so mushrooms wouldn't grow between their toes.

This book answers the overriding questions of the series:

Will Isabel, Curzon, Ruth and other slaves finally achieve freedom when the Patriots win the war?

Will Isabel and Curzon get together romantically? [strictly PG]

Each book has an Appendix that includes questions and answers about topics in the text and suggestions for further reading.